In the Cave, In the Mind of Zuko
by MoonlightSpirit
Summary: What was Zuko thinking in the cave scene of Crossroads of Destiny?


**Here's what Zuko was probably thinking in the cave scene in Crossroads of Destiny.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.**

The water peasant won't shut up. She just keeps going on and on and on about how evil I am. But I guess she's right. Look what I've done to her and her friends. I made their lives a living hell. It can't have been much fun having someone chase you around the world. I look back to see her with her hands outstretched, like some monster. I turn back around. Then she said something that truck a nerve.

"But what do you care?" she said, her voice full of hatred and her ocean blue eyes full of anger, "You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading violence and war and hatred is in your blood."

How dare she! She has no clue what I've been through! That the only family ever truly loved me was my mother and uncle. How I don't even know where my mother lives or if she's even alive. How I can't even return to my own country because I am a fugitive there. How my own father is ashamed to have me as a son. How he scarred me emotionally and physically. How I can now never be the same because of him. And I am NOTHING LIKE HIM.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" I nearly shout at her.

"What!" she nearly shrieks, "How dare you! You have no idea what this war has put me through! Me personally!" Then I hear tears a he silently cries, "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me."

Wow. I never knew that. So she has no mother too. Just like me.

"I'm sorry," I say, then I turn around to see here sitting on the ground and say, "That's something we have in common." She turns around,  
wiping her tears, and looks at me with her tear filled blue eyes. They're the most beautiful eyes I've seen. Hold on. Where did that though come from? I mean her eyes are beautiful. She's beautiful. Wait! Why am I thinking this? Grrrrrr. Damn teenage hormones.

We both stand up. She apologizes for yelling at me. She tells me that whenever she thought of the face of the enemy it was my face. For some reason, knowing she thought of my face gave me a weird feeling in my stomach. But I know she, means my scar. It's hard to forget someone with a huge ugly scar covering half their face. But she reads my mind, knowing what I'm thinking and says it's not what she meant. I tell her It's okay. How the scar always made me feel marked as the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. I'm probably sounding like I'm under some corny spell in a fairy tale. Then I add that recently, I realized I'm free to choose my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark. Then she tells me something that really catches my attention. She says maybe I can be free of it.

I eagerly ask her how. She tells me about healing powers she has, and my hopeful mood disappears. I tell her it's a scar and can't be healed. Then she pulls from around her neck a pendant. She says it's water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. I remember that place. It's where we had that intense battle. She nearly beat me. That would have really thrown my honor out the window. Being beaten by a girl.She tells me it has special properties. She walks over to me so that she's right in front of me. She tells me that she's not sure if it would work and trails off. I close my eyes,  
signaling to her that she could try. She's the first person to touch my scar. I never even let Uncle touch it. I feel her hand on my cheek and her one of her fingers on my lips. I can't see what finger it is since my eyes are closed, but it's probably her thumb.And for that moment, I swear, time stopped. It was just me and her. We weren't enemies or friends. Just two people so different, yet so similar. Two people whose lives were changed forever because of the same war.Her hand was soft and cool. I wish she could keep it there.

Suddenly, our moment broken as something crashed through the wall. We break apart and turn to the cloud of dust. I felt her long braid brush against my chest and the feeling in my stomach returned. From the dust emerges Uncle and the Avatar. The girl cries out "AANG!" and runs over to the Avatar, giving him a hug. He wraps his arm around her and looks at me, his eyes full of hatred with a look as if to say 'Stay away from her' or something like that. I look back at him, the same hatred in my eyes. Because, for some reason. I hate seeing her in the arms of another man. Or boy,in the Avatar's case.

**So how was it? Good? Bad? Disgraceful? Wonderful? Please Review! And check out my Yu-Gi-Oh story, Destiny.**


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